Sin Ming Blk 22 Teochew Braised Duck · Hup Seng Duck Rice 合成鸭饭

Lovely Teochew braised duck at Hup Seng Duck Rice in Block 22, Sin Ming Road. It's the favourite of many people.

Stall name: Hup Seng Duck Rice 合成鸭饭

Address: 22 Sin Ming Road, Singapore 570022

Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Upper Thomson station

Tel: 6454 3810

Hours: 9:00am - 2:00pm (Thurs off)

I know this corner coffee shop of block 22, Sin Ming Road well. For a few years, this was one of our regular lunch haunts. This is a nice though busy kopitiam. The place is bright, airy, clean and well kept.

When we come here we would order two types of soups - the famous Teochew bak kut teh from Rong Cheng and salted vegetable duck soup (kiam chye ark) from Hup Seng.

Sometimes, we only ordered Hup Seng's duck soup which was my favourite - I like its blend of peppery, tangy, salty flavours and fall-off-the-bone soft-tender duck meat. Strangely, for whatever reason, when we were here, we never ordered any other types of food 🤔 🤷 

Well..., except at night when we come here for Ah Orh Seafood which literally became a legend in our memories only (it closed in 2015 😓 ).

I came here at 10:30am to avoid the lunch crowd and there was already a queue of around 5 - 6 people. It got longer by the time I finished eating. (It's been over 10 years since I last ate at Hup Seng.)

For the first time in decades, I ordered duck meat but not the salted vegetable duck soup at Hup Seng. I was on a solo mission this morning and wanted to save ammo (calories) for a second target.

Anyway, everything here for $4.80 altogether.

I requested for breast meat, my favourite cut for braised duck. The pieces of meat came splashed with a watery dark sauce. The sauce in true Teochew style was not thickened with starch.

Though not quite stellar cutting skills, the braised duck meat was tender and moist with subtle duck gamey taste overlaid with gentle savoury herbal flavours from the dark sauce. I like the tender texture, and layered taste profile.

The soup was more herbal, less savoury (different from the more savoury, less herbal duck sauce).

A spoonful of white rice with dark sauce and braised duck followed by a spoonful of soup felt so blissful.

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Hup Seng provides a watery pulpy, quite sharp sourish spicy chili sauce that complements the duck meat well (that is, if you like sourish zesty zing).

I enjoyed Hup Seng's braised duck. Didn't finish the rice to save some calories and carbs to make room for my second target. But, it turned out that I should have ordered Hup Seng's salted vegetable duck soup instead (my second foray didn't turn up anything inspiring).

            

Written by Tony Boey on 17 Jan 2022